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Merkel: G8 to tackle food crisis

AFP
AFP - [email protected]
Merkel: G8 to tackle food crisis
Photo: DPA

German Chancellor Angela Merkel told a German newspaper that the G8 group of top industrialized nations will take measures to fight the soaring price of food at next week's summit.

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"A vast catalogue of measures to guarantee food supplies worldwide" is expected to be adopted at the G8 summit in the northern Japanese city of Toyako, Merkel told the Tagesspiegel am Sonntag which will be on newsstands Sunday.

The measures, based on a German government concept, are intended "to provide short-term relief to the food crisis and a long-term strategy to increase global agricultural production," Merkel said.

According to Japanese newspaper reports, the G8 powers also plan to create a task force on the food crisis during the summit. The working group will look into the possibility of lifting certain restrictions on exports which prevent the countries most in need from having access to the surplus food of rich nations.

G8 finance ministers warned at their meeting earlier this month that soaring oil and food prices pose "a serious challenge to stable growth worldwide" and may worsen poverty and stoke global inflation.

The heads of state and government from the G8 nations -- Germany, Canada, France, Italy, Britain, Japan, Russia and the United States -- will meet for three days starting Monday, in Toyako on the island of Hokkaido.

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